Wavelength tunable photon sources may be applied for a number of applications, where it may be advantageous to be able to adjust the emitted wavelength.
The reference “High speed micromechanically tunable Surface Emitting Laser with Si-MEMS technology”, KANBARA Nobuhiko, et al., Yokogawa Technical Report English Edition No. 47 (2009), describes a tunable surface emitting laser. This laser consists of a half VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) chip without a one-side dielectric mirror and a micromachined SOI (Silicon on Insulator) substrate with a concave mirror. These two chips are bonded together using a high-accuracy metal thermo compression bonding method. High-speed, wide-wavelength tuning is achieved by applying a variable voltage between the silicon membrane with the mirror and the silicon substrate. In the prototype, we have achieved high performance wavelength modulation over 500 kHz, a wide tuning range of 55 nm without any mode-hop, and a side mode suppression ratio of over 60 dB.
An improved tunable photon source would be advantageous.